Spent the whole evening trying to google all the necessary words and meaning for this chapter. Got confused, then gave up and now it’s midnight _(;3/
List of characters :
帕特里 Patrik (Python) / 林沐 Lin Mu (Female)
科恩 Cohen (White tiger) / 拉尔 Lal (Centipede)
洛克 Locke (Horned lion) / 萨沙 Sasha (Female)
杰森 Jason (Black cobra) / 莱丝 Lais (Female)
罗伊德 Lloyd (???) / 菲尔 Phil (Female)
莱恩 Ryan (Lion) / 黄远 Huang Yuan (Female)
巴奥 Ba-Ao (Brown winged bear) / 霍斯 Howth (Golden winged lion)
雷切尔 Rey (???) / 艾德琳 Adeline (Female)
卡索 Casso (Winged wolf) / 球球 Qiuqiu (pet?)
达蒙 Damon (??? / Casso’s father)
米莎 Misha (Female)
马特 Matt (Silver wolf / Misha’s father)
Please do not repost elsewhere and do not re-translate to other language from my English version.
Chapter 77 Winter preparation
As the weather is getting colder, keeping warm is what Lin Mu has been thinking about these days. For their house, having the Kang bed is good. When Lin Mu first started to build their house, he requested to set up the Kang bed. At Lin Mu’s request, other people also built one in their home. Although they can’t see the benefit of this Kang bed yet, Lin Mu’s saying that this kind of bed is warm in winter is enough for them to follow along. The biting cold in winter has a deep-rooted impression in the beastmen’s hearts, and so the newcomer beastmen followed Lin Mu’s instructions to build a Kang bed.
Thinking about what other things they need, Lin Mu felt that their tribe is lacking warm quilts and warm clothing. On the other hand, Lin Mu heard Lais talking about some ‘white flower’ before, but it is actually ‘cotton’ growing on the tree. Although its size is as big as a bowl, unlike the usual cotton he knows, Lin Mu can confirm that it is cotton. The essence of this flower is very similar to cotton, and he thinks it can be used to sew quilts.
At the moment, cotton quilts haven’t made it to Lin Mu’s schedule. When he was cleaning up the storage room, he found a bag with a lot of feathers. The bag was filled with feathers of various colors. It was mainly the feathers from the chicken that they often eat. There are some feathers from the colorful birds too, these should be collected by Patrik. Lin Mu remembered that some time ago, he kept emphasized the need to save the feathers every time Patrik hunted chickens. He also remembers saying with a smile that if he would make down jackets and duvets if they ever collected enough, but it didn’t take long for him to forget about it. Moreover, Patrik always cleans the prey outside before taking it home, so Lin Mu has completely forgotten about this matter. But apparently, Patrik still remembers his words and has been collecting them all the time. This makes Lin Mu felt warm in his heart. Patrik can always do things that moved him. After being moved, Lin Mu will naturally not disappoint Patrik. Hence, he decided to make the duvet in the next few days.
First, he took the feathers to the yard and washed them with water. Then he put them in a rattan basket to dry. When Patrik came back with the colorful birds and their feathers, he saw a lot of feathers in the yard. Lin Mu saw that Patrik has returned and smiled. He went to take the feathers from Patrik’s hand and said, “I am going to make a duvet, so I need to wash all the feathers first.”
“Then I will wash these,” Patrik said, as he moved to take back the feathers in Lin Mu’s hand.
Avoided Patrik’s hand, Lin Mu insisted, “I’ll do it. Go to the living room and have a rest.” After saying this, he went to get busy with his tasks.
Patrik didn’t think about anything unusual. He took the colorful bird into the kitchen and washed the fruit he picked today. Then he took one to Lin Mu, “Don’t get too busy. Here, eat some fruit.” Lin Mu said eating more fruit is healthy so Patrik wants him to eat more.
Lin Mu quickly put away the feathers in his hand and took a bite of the fruit, “En, it’s delicious.”
Somehow, Patrik feels that Mu Mu is a bit strange today. Of course, he didn’t know that Lin Mu was moved by him. Even if he knew, Patrik would definitely say, shouldn’t that be given?
After Lin Mu woke up from a nap, he went to look at the feathers he was drying. They are completely dried, so he carefully collected the feathers and took them into the living room, preparing to process them bit by bit. These feathers come in the whole piece. Therefore, he has to remove the hard parts and then patiently tear off the soft feathers on both sides of the feather trunk. This is a very tedious task, but Lin Mu did it very patiently. He specially found a bag to hold the soft feathers he plucked.
When Patrik saw that this kind of task is so troublesome, he planned to take over. But Lin Mu was unwilling, only agreeing that he could do it together with him. This feather plucking task is a delicate task for Patrik. For his convenience, Patrik mainly picks the big feathers as those small ones are really a test for his big palms. Lin Mu saw that and deliberately left the big ones to Patrik. The feathers they plucked filled a whole bag and there are really a lot of those feathers. In total, they collected more than 4 catties1, and it’s just enough for a duvet.
“Patrik, is there any kind of thinner animal skin at home?” Because the porosity of the cloth they knitted is relatively large, they are not suitable for duvets as they cannot lock down the feathers. But they could use animal skins, he could just sew another layer of cloth on the outside.
“Yes, I kept several.” Originally he planned to make clothes for Lin Mu, but animal skins have been disliked since the appearance of cloth.
“Come and show me.”
Patrik took out 5 animal skins, all are large and the skins are very thin and soft. At first glance, they looked like high-quality leather. To use it to make a duvet, only this world could be so luxurious. Lin Mu imagined his big bed in his head, and then looks at these animal skins, “3 is enough.” He pointed to 3 relatively large ones and said, “I want these, please cut them out for me.” “Then after he said his request, Lin Mu went to get his needle and thread.
Lin Mu sew the animal skins into 2 large sheets, then spread the feathers evenly on one of the skins. After that, he put the other skin on top, and begin to sew the edges, and lock all the down in the hides. When it’s done, he did the same sewing method in the middle of the quilt. It took Lin Mu 3 hours before he finishes the duvet. Of course, that doesn’t count the duvet cover.
For the cover, Lin Mu looked at his cloths. Due to silkworm cocoons only comes in 3 colors; white, pink, and yellow, Lin Mu picked the white one because he doesn’t know how to dye cloth. Compared with the other two colors, Lin Mu can accept white better. The duvet cover is made quickly because it does not require meticulousness. Lin Mu thinks that it’s fine as long as he didn’t sew crookedly and the stitches are denser. With Patrik’s help, he put the cover on the duvet. The duvet is finally completed, and it used the entire afternoon. But looking at the results, Lin Mu was still very happy, and he tried the duvet on his body. It was warm as expected, but not suitable for use at the current temperature.
When the news that Lin Mu made a duvet spread out, Huang Yuan immediately came to study the process and decided to make one for himself. He has experienced the winter cold in this world, so he knows the importance of a duvet better. Touching the duvet, Huang Yuan said, “En, this cover should be warm enough. If it gets too cold, we can add an animal skin blanket to it.”
“I thought of down jackets when I looked at the duvets. They are really necessary clothing in winter.” Huang Yuan said.
“Cotton jacket is also a must in winter.”
“My dear, there are really not many people wearing cotton jackets in the 21st century.” Huang Yuan continued, “Thinking about it now, wool sweaters are also a must in winter. Remember how girls always like to wear big wool sweaters in winter to look pretty and wear a small fitting down jacket underneath? No one will wear cotton jackets like it is nowadays.”
“Wool sweaters? But we don’t know how to make yarn2.”
“But we can make woolen sweaters3. Wool is from sheep, and we have sheep.”
“The thing is we don’t know how to make yarn.”
Huang Yuan paused for a while, “I can try to experiment a bit.”
“Ah! By the way!” Lin Mu suddenly thought of something, “Huang Yuan, can you make charcoal?”
“Charcoal? Hmm…” Huang Yuan thought hard, “I have seen it before, but I can’t remember the process clearly. It seems that I need to make it in a charcoal kiln.”
“You have to remember. Winter will be warmer if we have charcoal.”
Huang Yuan knew that. In his heart, he decided to think about the details he saw when he returned home. The most important thing is to make the charcoal kiln first.
After Huang Yuan left, Lin Mu felt that the weather is pretty good today, so he took the animal skin blanket that was usually spread on the ground into the yard. After that, he sat on it and began to sew more quilts. Of course, this time it was to make cotton quilts. Lin Mu is going to prepare all the quilts first, it could be kept for later use. Although the weather is getting cold now, there is still some time before it’s the proper time to wear the cotton jacket. Because he doesn’t know how to deseed cotton, Lin Mu tore the cotton apart and spread it evenly on the cloth. In a day, Lin Mu made two cotton quilts, one thin and one thick. The thin one can be used now. He put the newly made quilt to dry on the bamboo drying rack in the yard and put it away in the cabinet at sunset.
Patrik came back very late in the evening. After he helped to put the finished quilts into the house, he asked, “Mu Mu, aren’t you tired from making those quilts?”
Lin Mu smiled and said, “Not as tired as you with your hunting.”
Because Lin Mu started making quilts and the like, Lais and the others also started making quilts. Other than that, they also learned from Lin Mu to make a duvet, which is light and warm, which they all think is nice.
After the quilt is finished, it’s time to make winter clothes. Lin Mu made a big windbreaker out of animal skins for Patrik and added a thin layer of cotton between the two layers of animal skins. After that, he made Patrik a close-fitting shirt and undergarment. During wintertime, Patrik doesn’t need to go out hunting, hence he doesn’t transform, so these clothes can be worn. Of course, Lin Mu also made himself a windbreaker, a cotton jacket, and a down jacket. Lin Mu originally wanted to save enough feathers to make a down jacket for Patrik, but Patrik said that Lin Mu had to prioritize himself first, saying that his strong body would not feel very cold when winter is starting. In the end, Lin Mu could only use the feathers he had accumulated recently on himself.
Because of the emergence of duvets, many chickens and colorful birds in the forest have suffered a bit. Fortunately, the beastmen knew to make sure supply is sustainable. Although they were hunting more than usual, it is not serious until the birds get extinct. Other than that, the meats that they cannot finish eating can be dried and used as reserves, so not a single bit was wasted.
On the other hand, Huang Yuan finally figured out the outline of the charcoal kiln. After some experiments, he made one most similar to a real charcoal kiln and produced the first batch of charcoal. Warmth in winter is even more guaranteed now. Because producing charcoal requires wood, in order not to damage the tree population, the beastmen will always look in places with denser trees and cut down trees that are poorly grown, and leave suitable growth space for the trees.
Because the feeling of winter is getting stronger, almost everyone started to make warmer clothing. For beastmen who have a female beastman at home, it’s great for them since their female will make clothing for them. Those without a female however are in a bit of trouble. In the past, their winter clothes were made in extremely simple ways. Some beastmen even draped heavy animal skins on their body, then tie a rope around their waist and call it a day. But that was when everyone is not particular about the styles. Now in the tribe, people are wearing a new type of clothing made of cloth. If you are still wearing animal skin, then the contrast is too big. This cause the beastmen to start looking for ways to make their clothes.
Neither Lal nor Cohen know how to make clothes, but this year they obviously cannot wear animal skins, so in the end, Lal decided to find someone to learn how to make clothes. Lin Mu did not hesitate to enlighten him. Knowing beastman’s characteristic of being unable to do fine work, Lin Mu taught Lal a convenient way of making clothes. He can just cut the animal skins into pieces according to his body shape and then stitch the animal skins together. Although the sleeves are easy to fail when made in this method, he should be able to get it after more practice. In the end, Lal smoothly made a wearable clothing. As for the style, en, Lin Mu expressed that he doesn’t have to mind that.
Winter slowly approaches and the preparations of the drifter beastman tribe are proceeding step by step. By the time Lin Mu, who was not very good with cold temperature puts on the thin cotton jacket he made, their tribe members had finished preparing their winter clothing and quilts, according to Patrik. Their home is also prepared enough, whether it is thick or thin, they have it.
Although the weather is getting colder, Lin Mu still hasn’t started sleeping on the Kang bed yet, because with Patrik as a natural heater4 beside him, Lin Mu won’t feel cold.
Raw word count : 3558
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Banana: I don’t know how LM make dem cloths anymore seriously. When LM first decided to make use of the silk from silkworm, I looked it up and thought he would be using something like the simple spinner from Sleeping Beauty. That is weaving. But then LM later mentioned using 2 bamboo stick… that’s knitting. Right now, they mentioned wool and LM said they don’t know how to make yarn? That means they weren’t knitting previously? But how do you weave thread with just 2 bamboo sticks lol? #BananaGotConfused #TheAttackIsSuperEffective
Silk comes off the cocoon in a long thread form for the most part. Usually it’s then twisted together to make thicker stronger thread, but maybe their silk worms just make an already ready to use thicker thread because deus ex machina like everything else.
Yarn is harder cause you’re twisting and spinning smaller fibers together to make a smooth string. It takes a lot of practice to make smooth, usable yarn.
You can make a simple loom though with a few long branches. Make a frame and then wrap it to make your weft. Or even just one branch and some rocks to weigh your weft down. You then weave with a needle or small shuttle through the weft to make loose cloth. Maybe they used two chunky bamboo rods to do something similar? Hang one from the ceiling and use the other as a weight at the bottom? Though I agree, the way most of us probably read it implied knitting/crocheting.
LM said that the silk was thicker then normal
Actually it does make sense Patrik as a natural heater since everytime he sleeps with Lin Mu it always in his human form, human is not a reptilian. So as long as Patrik is in his human form, his body heat would make sense. Unless, Lin Mu sleeps with a giant phyton on his bed which… I don’t think it would fit.